Fans Compile List Of Missing Features From The Sims 4

An enthusiastic, invested community has always been one of the strengths of The Sims series. However, for the upcoming Sims 4, Electronic Arts may be lamenting these fans' attention to detail, since it has resulted in a list of 89 things that have been cut from previous entries.

The post on Sims4News offers a comprehensive rundown of the missing features, which ranges from small cuts (like the absence of acne) to larger omissions (like the lack of pools, basements, and cars).

We asked The Sims 4 executive producer Rachel Franklin about the omissions in an interview at Gamescom. "I'm uber focused on the base game," she says. "It's always a tough decision. I want to put everything we've ever created in the last 14 years into a base game. We simply can't. That said, what we have done is we've created an incredibly rich, robust experience. If we didn't build the core foundation, but I gave you pools, that wouldn't be the right thing to do. So we had to make that choice, because we have to make sure that the foundation of the experience that we're delivering for the base game is as amazing as I believe we've made it. It was a tough decision, but I believe it was the right decision despite how difficult it was."

However, no matter the reasons behind it, giving gamers less with a sequel than they had with the previous iteration is going to be a tough pill to swallow. For more about Sims 4, read about its community features, or check out our silly look at potential expansions.

Our TakeI love the Sims series, but I have to admit that list seems pretty damning. EA apparently has not learned its lesson from Madden, which released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 with fewer features than the PS2 and Xbox iterations – and some might argue it never quite caught up again. Sims players are used to expansion content – like pets – not being a part of the next base game. This goes beyond that, though; I can understand the anger about missing things that were always out-of-the-box features. I just hope EA doesn't plan on charging money for these elements later.